Providence’s Downtown Boys are the poster children for a new strain of activist, punk-inflected rock. Animated by anti-capitalist fury, suffused with celebrations of otherness and shot through with the loving honk of a saxophone, it is music of defiance and hope. The group celebrates the release of its Sub Pop Records debut with support from Providence marching band What Cheer? Brigade. (Read my interview with the band.)

This Thursday is your last chance to enjoy the Gardner Museum’s free Neighborhood Nights before summer’s end. The final installment features a collaboration between artist in residence Laura Anderson Barbata and the Caribbean stilt dancing of Brooklyn Jumbies.

For seven years, the amphitheater at Allston’s Christian Herter Park sat abandoned. A community fundraising effort recently restored operations there, and now Brown Box Theatre Project will christen the space with its first theatrical production — Shakespeare's "Hamlet," under the stars. (Read more about the park's long history here.)

To understate it somewhat, a lot happened in 1967 — much of it the subject of the MFA’s “The Summer of Love” exhibit, which runs through Oct. 22. This weekend the museum kicks off a three-week-long cinematic celebration of that momentous year with screenings of “In the Heat of the Night,” “The Graduate” and “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner” — films that changed the dialogue around race, gender and sex in America. (Here's a closer look at the movies from our film critic Tom Meek.)

Stills from the 1967 films "In the Heat of the Night," "Cool Hand Luke," "Valley of the Dolls" and "Jungle Book." (Courtesy MFA)

Every year, the legendary community arts organization AS220 takes over Empire Street in Providence for a giant, music-and-art-powered block party called Foo Fest. Music runs the gamut from experimental to hip-hop to rock; this year’s headliners are influential Providence noise band Lighting Bolt and monster New York rapper Cakes Da Killa. Plus, lots of artsy, kid-friendly activities presented by artists-in-residence Kari Percival and the ARTery’s own Greg Cook.

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Amelia MasonTwitterMusic Reporter/Critic, The ARTeryAmelia Mason is a music critic and reporter for WBUR’s The ARTery, where she covers everything from indie rock to avant-garde to the inner workings of the Boston music scene.